Beauty and the Fox
by Kawaiikiwilove
Summary: A Beauty and the Beast AU. Being the outcast of her village, Mikage offers Nanami a chance to change her life...but at what cost? and who is this beastly man called Tomoe?
1. Prologue

**Yep…I started a new one…and yep…it's a different anime XD. This is an AU of beauty and the beast, a storyline originally done by Disney and a beloved favourite of mine. I thought this story would be perfect for Nanami and Tomoe, especially based off the first episode where Mikage is the one to lead Nanami to the shrine where she meets the terrifying Tomoe. I also think the story line for kamisama hajimemashita is very similar to beauty and the beast as both developments end in "beast like"(?) male becoming a softer and more understanding character. I'm aware there are a lot of major differences between the two stories but I'm going to try and alter the personalities of the characters and their original purposed in Kamisama Hajimemashita to fit the story of beauty and the beast.**

Once upon a time, there lived a very poor and beautiful young maiden named Nanami Momozono.

She lived in a small village with an even smaller economy as well as social interaction. The folks that lived there mainly kept to themselves as a way of insuring they weren't mixing with the wrong people.

The small brunette was a bright child with a very promising future ahead of her, full of high qualifications and jobs that used her intricate knowledge well. Yet her only obstacle was her layabout father.

She was once part of a happy family of three. Nanami was born as beautiful as her mother and received compliments about it on a regular basis. As she grew up, she grew long brown hair, which was rarely seen to be placed in any sort of updo and mostly wore a long flowing baby blue dress that caught the attention of many passers-by in the dull hued village. She had many friends as well as admirers and her life was overall a good one. This was until the passing of her hardworking mother.

The village was a poor one and often endured long droughts of hot and cropless months. Her mother worked as a dancer in the village for as long as she could remember, making it her lifelong goal to inspire people to try their hardest and to cheer them up in the tough times they lived through. No matter her mood or condition, she would always be there to support the ones who needed it the most. She was a well-known and respected woman with as much popularity as her daughter. She often taught Nanami the most popular dances that were requested of her and encouraged the young girl to follow in her footsteps, as the village's number one dancer.

Nanami grew to love to dance through her mother's teachings, and often performed for her many friends. She continued to learn many different types of dance from the few books in the library that was rarely touched. This included knowledge of overseas dances and how to perform them. Nanami's personal favourite was traditional Japanese dances performed by temple worshippers shed learnt about in the books, mainly consisting of beautiful kimonos and instruments used to make the dancers seem almost god like.

The village had no schooling within it except from the passing down of jobs from parents to children, which meant that a limited few could read the simplest of sentences. Nanami's father however, was a foreigner that moved into the village once he had met her mother. Her father came from richer area that did have schooling, which allowed him to pass on his skills to Nanami once she had been born, including the rare ability to read. Therefore this is how she learnt more dances and more ways to cheer up the people in her neighbourhood with her beautiful talents.

However, before long her mother started to become vulnerable and infected by illness. She was no longer able to dance her complex routines and show them to the neighbourhood. Nanami was also too busy worrying about her mother's sickness to do anything of virtue for the village. With the lack of motivation to engage in joyful dancing, the villagers fell into depression and started to do less and less to help the Momozono's in their time of need.

Before long, Nanami's mother passed away and took all the joy she once brought to the people with her. Nanami tried her hardest to bring back the joy she once knew without dancing, the pain of remembering her mother becoming too much to bear each time she tried. She tried and tried and tried to teach the young people of the village how to read and to persuade them to give it a try. but her love for books was seen as almost an insult to the uneducated of the lot. Instead she received hateful comments from her friends and once admirers, accusing her of being strange and unable to fit into their dim witted world, despite living there her entire life.

The people weren't the only ones to act differently after the death of her mother.

Nanami's father was said to be a respectable and good man since he arrived in the village, however after the death of his beloved, he turned his back on his own daughter and started wasting what little money they had on Alcohol while abandoning basic necessities such as food and rent.

Nanami knew the small village lacked room for her and her abilities for a long time and would often travel into the woods behind the village to escape the hateful glares. However, one trip in particular was certain to change the young girls life forever…


	2. Chapter 1

Nanami walked to the same place she always did. It was a small clearing among the mass of brown and green that allowed a chunk of sunlight to shine through the gaps in the canopy. When it was the evening, like it was now, a sheet of glittering stars started to look a lot closer to earth than they actually were and allowed Nanami to happily lie on the undisturbed grass and forget her problems.

This time was different though. As she laid there and studied the many constellations to litter the sky, she heard a loud shriek from the forest surrounding her as well as the yapping of what she guessed to be a small dog.

She followed the irregular noises till she found a small dog, quite literally barking up a tree.

"OH! Little girl! Stand away from that wolf! Can't you see its sharp teeth?! Run while my manic struggling distracts it!" A white haired man shrieked. He seemed quite eccentric to Nanami with one size too big for him glasses hanging from his ears and an old fashioned brown fedora held to the top of his head with a free hand while clung to the low hanging branches of a tree.

Nanami fought the urge to laugh at the ridiculous scene before her. It was a joy that she had lacked for a long time. The feeling of being able to laugh was a welcomed experience.

Before even considering how rude it would be, she burst out laughing and felt her knees go weak. She fell down and clutched her stomach as she nearly cried, not sure whether it was from the laughter or the clenching pain that came with it.

"That?..." she rose to her feet while trying to regain her breath once her fit of laughter had mostly ended.

"Are you telling me… that this little thing …is the terrifying wolf that caused you to jump ten feet into that tree?" she uttered between small breaths while picking the small creature up and allowed it to lick her face excitedly as she played with its ears. Meanwhile the mysterious blonde man looked at her incredulously.

"H-h-how are you…" he stuttered as he took in the sight before him. A small child with what looked like no value to her name, managed to approach the wild thing with the illusion that it wasn't some man eating carnivore. As 'dog' looking as it was, he knew that thing was a fully grown wolf. It was plain as day, despite it being almost night time. He could see that she was a highly intelligent creature. So why couldn't she see it?

"Now look here child, it may be a small one of its kind, but it isn't what's on the outside that counts! That thing is going to grow up to be a vicious carnivore and we are only its play toys till that day comes." The blonde man looked at her through is round glasses that looked a bit too big on him and smiled warmly at her. Considering that all she saw was a small pup, it would be no use to try and convince her that what she was actually holding was a rather large excitable wolf.

"Take yourself for example." Nanami finally took her attention off the small dog in her arms and raised her head to face the stranger, reaching out a free hand to help him down while balancing the small dog on one arm.

"And what about myself? If I'm allowed to ask."

"Well…" he started while grabbing her outstretched hand and using it to guide himself out of the tree.

"In my personal opinion, you look like one of those narrow pretty ones." Finally reaching the floor he dusted himself off while keeping a wary eye on the animal in Nanami's arms.

"Narrow pretty ones?" Nanami could not understand this man's attempt at describing her, she wasn't sure whether to feel flattered or offended.

"You know the ones, the dead brained ones that spend too much time on the looks than on the books."

Offended. Definitely was meant to be offensive.

"I beg your pardon?!" she almost screeched back at him, startling the pup in her arms, causing it to wriggle out of her grasp and scamper off.

If there was one thing she couldn't stand after living in the village like hers, it was people judging others without knowing their situation.

"I'll have you know that just because I'm what you see as pretty, it does not mean you have the right to be so simple minded!" Nanami tried her best to be as polite as possible to the stranger, while not letting on the fact that she could read books quite well, and never really paid too much attention to her looks either.

"But you're not just a pretty one, are you?" the blonde man started to stalk around her in an ominous way, as if he was analysing every aspect of her.

Unbeknownst to Nanami, he _was_ analysing her. Her pain, her loss, her sorrow, her worth, her potential. It was all there, glowing brightly in her past and exactly what he was looking for …

"I can see you, you know? Your past…your present…your future…your quite the special one aren't you?"

"I'm not special! I'm like everyone el-" she tried to protest before he cut into her sentence.

"Ah! But your not are you?" The man stopped circling her and faced her head on while kneeling down to her short level. After trying to right his stability for a couple of minutes, his eyes met hers and he raised an accusing finger towards her.

"You are special…because most people…" He shook his finger to emphasis what he was saying to her and gave a quiet, almost unnoticeable laugh while shaking his head incredulously.

"Most peop- well _humans_ \- look at a person and judge them on the outside only, their looks or their personality. This is perfectly understandable, because they need to actually speak to that person or interact with them in one way or another to get to know them and judge them on their personality. But animals are much harder to understand as they have different ways of interaction to humans, making them unable to make an assumption on act of character. But you, you clever little thing! You look at any animal or person and immediately judge them on their personality!"

Nanami was confused in the least. This man made no sense! Nobody can judge a person on their personality without talking to them first or seeing them talk to other people and she wasn't about to let him believe that she bought his stupid excuse for being weird.

"Nothing your saying makes sense. Nobody can do th-"

"But you-!"

"Excuse me, I was talking"

"So was I!"

"I was talking first"

"I was talking second"

"You're insane!"

"Actually my birth name is 'Mikage'… but I can also be known as Tochigami or the marriage god"

"You're just proving my point here"

"How? That's my name…"

The Brunette slammed hands against her forehead in an attempt to supress her upcoming headache. She massaged her temples and inhaled briefly to calm her nerves before cautiously trying to direct this conversation to a brief close.

"I'm sorry si- _Mikage_ \- But I'm afraid I must have overstayed my welcome here. I shall be heading back to my own village now. Sorry to have disturbed you." She began to walk back to the clearing she was originally in to gather at least a few moments of peace before going back to her drunkard father.

"W-wait. Y-you can't just leave! Not now" Mikage screeched with an outstretched arm shooting out to her.

"And why not?" She shot back accusingly.

"U-um…you saved me! It's your responsibility to make sure I'm still safe!" Mikage was desperate for things to go the way he needed them too. This supposedly ordinary girl had a flare about her that he hadn't seen in quite a while, a flare he so desperately needed to save. Not only for himself, but for Nanami…aswell as her forgotten could already see that flame slipping out of his fingers and quite possibly dying, which needed to be avoided at all costs. He needed Nanami just the same as he left her all those years ago. Mikage could feel his Memories gradually returning, of a time where this bold little girl seemed much happier.

"All I did was pick up a puppy! It's not my fault that you're overdramatic! And it's certainly not my responsibility to guide you back home!" she turn around abruptly with a flutter of her dress and proceeded to storm off.

"But I haven't even mentioned the reward yet!" this made Nanami stop suddenly in her tracks and look over her shoulder back at Mikage, still holding the glare she shot at him earlier.

"I live in quite a large place you see, I'm sure it's much better than the small brick huts your town puts up with. If you guide me back there safely, I'll let you live with me. Free of charge. As long as you don't mind pets – Ah! humans! My roommate! Tomoe! The human!" Mikage visibly started to sweat as Nanami noticed his sudden change in demeanour. This man was so strange, one second he was screaming for someone to save him from a puppy, the next he was stating everything he observed about her in a very realistic manor. One second he was whining about her responsibility as his saviour, the next he has the situation completely controlled and bended to his will.

She'd honestly never met anyone like him. The fact that he was clearly quite educated compared to the other villagers she'd grown up with, we a refreshing change. It reminded her of the times before her father was a crazy drunk and actually managed to keep up an intellectual conversation with her.

"Who's Tomoe?" She enquired, interested in her possible roommate. She'd never met Tomoe before, and she didn't have any friends called Tomoe in the village either, after all it was a strange name. Yet why did it seem so familiar?

"You'll find out soon enough" smiled Mikage."now do we have a deal?"

"Don't you think people would find it quite weird, if a teenager like me was to live with an old man such as yourself?" Nanami knew that the last thing she needed was more rumours being spread about her.

Mikage suddenly placed his hand over where his heart should be and gasped dramatically with a smile still plastered on his face.

"Old man?!" he breathed out. "I'll have you know I'm only 235 years old!" Nanami could feel her own smile stretch across her face and giggle at the Mikages joke. Little did she know it wasn't actually a joke and Mikage was actually quite young for a God, the pale gold hair only made him seem to have aged.

"You have no need to worry about rumours at my place, there's only me, the furni- I mean servants! My um…pet snake?...yeah, pet snake Mizuki and Tomoe. I live in a quite secluded area so there would be nobody there to spread the rumours if there were any, plus nobody except you from the human world can see the servants anyway." Nanami was taken aback from his strange way of speaking. Truly nothing that came from this man's mouth made any sense!

Was he just uncertain whether his pet was a snake or not? Unless he has a rather large worm, she was pretty sure it wasn't difficult to distinguish what was a snake and what wasn't. Plus, why did he call the servants furniture? And why couldn't anybody see them?!

As much as she found the marriage god weird, she believed that anything was better than her current living situation and was willing to turn a blind eye to his strange ways of speaking to her. It was better than her father's drunken slurs any day.

"I accept your offer." she said quickly. "Are there any conditions I need to follow?" she inquired.

"Only one" he stated matter of factly. "Once we get there, your allowed anywhere at any time, the Gardens are free to be explored and you are free to read every book in the library if you wa-"

"There's a library?!" Nanami suddenly yelled. The library in her little village was so small it could barely be called one. It was basically a massive room with three books in the corner sitting proudly on a stand. It seemed to reflect the whole village's inability to read perfectly, especially as Nanami was the only one to take them out and read them.

"Yes now pay attention" Mikage gave a small giggle from his throught and placed his hand on her head with a smile. "The only place you are never allowed to go, at least without permission, is the west wing. You are not to ask about it and you are not to go near it. That's all I ask." Mikage explained his conditions with a serious tone yet still kept his plastered smile on his face.

"What happens if I do go there?" Nanami knew she needed to ask as she knew her tendency to get overly curious about these things could get the best of her and often caused her to break the rules.

"You'll have Tomoe to answer to." He said sternly.

"Not you? Isn't it your house?" there were so many things about Mikage that she had realised she would probably never understand, such as his very ambiguous life.

"It is, but Tomoe is a very dear, yet temperamental, person to me. The west wing is his personal space, only for those he trusts, and it takes a long time for him to trust someone, I myself would know."

Mikage often wondered why Tomoe found it difficult to trust Human, he sometimes even found it hard to trust fellow Gods for that matter. Even when he met Nanami for the first time it took him a while to trust her, simply because she was human. It's how it always has been. Perhaps it was the wolf within him.

Nanami wasn't going to argue with Mikage over such a trivial matter as not going into someone's private place. Even though she didn't make it apparent, she was desperate to go despite all the abnormalities.

"That's fine with me." She said linking arms with Mikage. "Lead the way."

Mikage gently pulled on her bent arm and journeyed her through multiple twists and turns in the trees in such a way that even if Nanami would try to escape, which could be quite a likely outcome, she would have a difficult job of finding her way back home. That as well as the barrier placed around his land made Mikage confident that things were going to turn out for the better. The unique God just knew that from this point on there should be no fatal flaws in his plan. He finally found the girl he was looking for. Now he just needed Tomoe to take a second chance.

Whilst Mikage formulated his course of action for the upcoming events, Nanami took this chance to study the scenery around her. She'd never had the chance to venture this far into the woods, she'd never dared to. She'd always have nightmares of getting lost and eventually greeting her demise within those woods as she knew that nobody would even miss her or notice she was gone, let alone try to find her.

She noticed as they walked that the tree's seemed to become more beautiful and full of life, almost lighting their way into what should have been the dark depths of the woods. The pale moonlight dimmed in comparison to what she was seeing as shimmering reflections of that very same moonlight reflected off of the increasing amounts of snow that seemed to appear. Nanami could feel the air get colder and she tugged the thin fabric of her cloak around her shoulders tighter whilst making certain to not let go of Mikage's arm. In the distance she could see the faint outline of what seemed to be a magnificent stone castle. This couldn't be Mikage's could it? she was under the illusion that it was a smallish mansion, not a freakin' castle!

As they approached the castle, Nanami was too awestruck by the castle to notice their crossover of the barrier and the wide screen of what would seem to humans as an oil on water effect that could be considered the only visible giveaway that it was even there.

"ta-dahh! Were here!" Mikage suddenly yelled, startling Nanami in the process.

She felt so insignificant compared to the towering stone walls in front of her and large traditional wooden panel door. She could already tell that she was going to have a migraine by the end of this.


End file.
